Daily Devotional For Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Good morning Southside. Our daily devotional for today comes from Psalm 136. The link here will take you to it or you can turn in your Bible to it. This psalm has 26 verses and each verse has a statement, “Give thanks to the Lord . . .” followed by the same refrain, “His lovingkindness is everlasting.” This is a psalm that is a companion to Psalm 135. This psalm was written through inspiration by the Holy Spirit to remind all of God’s people that God’s lovingkindness is everlasting. It is not conditional; it is eternal.

The Hebrew word translated as “lovingkindness” is the Hebrew word [חַסְדּ, hesed]. This Hebrew word is used 245 times in the Hebrew Old Testament and 127 times in the psalms. Old Testament scholar, Arthur Green, defines “hesed” this way: ““a free-flowing love that knows no bounds” (Source: Arthur Green, These Are the Words: A Vocabulary of Jewish Spiritual Life, p. 152. This psalm is written as if you have two choirs: one sings the main line and the second sings the refrain. It is almost as if each choir is in a contest to see who can sing the most and the loudest, reminding all of God’s lovingkindness.

This psalm gives God’s people 26 reasons to give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness. The repetition of the refrain is intentional. Why? Because we forget God’s lovingkindness to us. Instead of expressing gratitude to God consistently, we gripe to God consistently. As God’s people, we are to be the most intentional in praising and thanking God for His mercy, grace, love and kindness to us. 

Like many in the world and our culture, we come to God with an entitlement attitude. God owes us nothing and we owe Him everything. Each line in this psalm calls God’s people to reflect on why they recite the refrain. The refrain is the heartbeat of this psalm. It is what gives it life and keeps the life of this psalm sustained. By singing or reciting this psalm, God’s people brought the past into their present. We tend to get stuck in the present and forget how God was with us, helped us, answered a prayer in our past. 

Failing to remind ourselves of what God has done for us in the past becomes a hindrance to praising Him in the present and anticipating His lovingkindness to us in the future. The same results happening can be said about reciting The Lord’s Prayer. This is why many hymns have the singers repeat the same words in the chorus such as “I surrender all . . .” or “Trust and obey . . .”   or “Great is Thy faithfulness . . .” The repetition is not accidental nor is it there to get you frustrated with singing the same words over and over. They are there to remind us of God’s lovingkindness to us.

Reflection Assignment: Here is a challenge. Take a moment to write out 26 sentences (as a reminder of the 26 verses) that express the goodness of God. Use these to show gratitude to the Lord for His kindness. Follow these by a refrain of “God’s lovingkindness is everlasting” to mirror the refrain in each of the 26 verses. Then, like the psalmist, share it with someone.

Scripture To Meditate On: Psalm 145:3, "Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure His greatness” (NLT).

Prayer To Pray: “Lord, You are great and worthy of praise and thanksgiving. There is no one like You. Please forgive me when I gripe rather than express gratitude to You. All I need is You. I want to become a person who consistently praises You with thanksgiving. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly